Sapphire

Charles laughed. Angelique didn’t. “Do you want her or don’t you?” she asked, rolling on her other stocking.

“I do. You know I do. Damn her, she’s got my balls so blue, I actually half proposed to her the other night.”

“Did you really?” Angelique stood up, stepped into her shoes and reached for her wrinkled chemise. “She didn’t tell me. But surely she will accept your invitation to the ball.”

“I don’t know.” He frowned and rested his forearm on his forehead. “She seems fond of Salmons.”

“Salmons doesn’t hold a candle to you, Charlie.” Henry gave him a good-natured slap on his bare belly.

Charles knocked his hand away. “I’m just not used to not getting what I want, when I want it.”

“Did you mean it?” She dropped the chemise over her head and picked up her stays. “I mean the part about being willing to marry her?”

Charles shrugged. “I suppose I must marry someone, and marrying her would certainly infuriate my parents, considering her reputation. That alone would be worth it, perhaps.”

“Because marriage is what she wants. Marriage to a good man.”

“I’ll vouch for Charlie. A finer chap I’ve never known.” Henry went to hit him again, but Charles caught his hand in time to stop him.

“I just don’t know if you’re the right man for her,” Angelique said, stepping into her rumpled pink gown and slipping her arms into the sleeves.

“And what’s that supposed to mean? My family—”

“Your family,” Angelique interrupted, “made its wealth less than a hundred years ago off the bad fortune of others. Her family, without money or not, is descended from Anglo-Saxon kings.”

“I’ve yet to see any proof of her claim,” Charlie said airily.

“You’ll not speak of my Sapphire that way, Lord Thomas,” Angelique fumed as she marched over to the bed while struggling to straighten her bodice. “Take it back this moment or I’ll tell Sapphire just where you were tonight, in this bed, performing those unlawful acts.”

He frowned and crossed his arms over his bare chest like a little boy scolded by his mother. “And she would be angry with me and not you?”

“Sapphire loves me.”

“I love you,” Henry said sweetly, reaching out to take her hand and bring it to his lips.

She smiled down at him. “I know you think you do, dear.” He must have brought his own furnishings to these rooms, she mused. The case clock was an Alex Kelt, and he had two lovely rugs, worn, but still very nice. Henry might not be flush, but he did have substance.

“No, I mean it.” He sat up. “I would marry you. Portia Stillman be damned, my parents be damned. I would give up my inheritance to marry you in a minute.”

“And what on earth would make you think I would marry you without your inheritance?” With a smile playing on her lips, she turned her back to him and sat on the edge of the bed. “Lace me up, will you? I really must go.”

Henry laced up her gown and she leaned over and kissed him soundly.

“Will I see you tomorrow night?”

“It’s already tomorrow,” she said as she thought to herself that she liked Henry much better than she ought to.

“Will you see me tonight?” She shrugged her slender shoulders. “Very likely.” She leaned over Henry and kissed Charles on the lips. “Bye, sweet.”

“Tell Sapphire I was asking for her, and do put in a good word for me,” Charles said.

Angelique grabbed her silk wrap and reticule and skipped toward the door. “I will. Sleep tight, gentlemen.” She gave them a wave and was gone.

“You want me to see ’bout that green ribbon, Miss Sapphire?” Avena asked, taking great care to enunciate each word correctly. “I could run down to the dress shop and get you more.”

“And see Bixby Dawson at the same time?” Angelique teased from the stool where she sat in front of the vanity, twisting her hair into fat curls with the aid of a hair iron Avena had heated for her.

Lord Carter was coming for Angelique at noon and they were attending boat races on the Thames. Sapphire had also been invited by several of the young men courting her, but she had feigned fatigue out of desire to stay home for just one day. It seemed as if it had been months rather than weeks since she’d had a chance to sit and read a book or go for a walk without worrying about entertaining the fawning gentlemen who constantly surrounded her.